Are your employees engaged, committed, and highly motivated to your company and your brand?

Employee engagement is a vital component of any human resource strategy. Many organizations have narrowed the focus on employee engagement amid the struggle for economic survival.

Why is Engagement Important?

People who are engaged by their work have a sense of urgency, focus, enthusiasm, and intensity. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 2011 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Study reports that: “People who are engaged are determined to accomplish their work goals and are confident they can meet their goals.” A highly engaged workforce is critical to the survival of any company. A disengaged workforce can be a major cause of a spiral into insolvency.

How can you improve Engagement Levels?

Low levels of engagement are a significant competitive disadvantage. But while the problem is important, most companies do not realize the significant improvement in engagement levels can be accomplished through a set of human interactions focused on a few vital areas.

Strategy #1 – A culture of support, ethics, and performance

Your company culture needs to enable an environment that fosters the creation of cooperative bonds among people, so each person can feel a commitment to co-workers and the team. That establishment of a personal connection with at least a vital few co-workers will reinforce engagement and build a shared sense of responsibility that results in support, commitment, and performance, especially when the going gets tough.

Culture cannot be achieved overnight and requires a dedication by leadership to be committed to service excellence. Team members need to know that leaders are fair, supportive and committed to their success and growth.

Strategy #2 – Quality of interaction with Leader/Manager

Remember the old adage: “People don’t leave companies, they leave managers.” How you treat your team will determine how they treat you and the quality of the output that they deliver. It is through the ongoing manager/team member dialogue that almost all the key engagement leverage points begin to take shape. Without this sometimes challenging, always candid and respectful dialogue, none of the other drivers of engagement have a chance to make a difference.

Strategy #3 – Strategy and Objectives

Two factors are critical if strategy and objectives are to be a positive force for engagement. The first is that they are defined and communicated. Without clear understanding of the objectives, there can be no focus. Second, there must be a certain level of confidence that the strategy will work. After all, who wants to work on something that likely will fail, even if the cause is noble?

Strategy #4 – Work of Value

People who work on activities that have meaningful impact and contribution tend to be highly motivated. The work given to team members must be work that is adding value and that is meaningful to their development and growth. When someone does something that means something they will value the actions taken to achieve the desired results.

Strategy #5 – Opportunities for Growth

Personal development is critical for the growth and success of a company. Most people value the opportunity for personal development and deeply appreciate someone’s interest in their welfare and future. Jack Welch, former CEO of General electric said as leaders we should -“Think of yourself as a gardener, with a watering can in one hand and a can of fertilizer in the other. Occasionally, you have to pull some weeds but most of the time you just nurture and tend.” Candid developmental discussions and practical developmental activities can be a strong indicator of an organization’s commitment to the individual.

Strategy #6 – Adequate Resources to Get the Work Done

Everyone wants to succeed, and success requires the capacity to get things done. Motivation and engagement suffer when employees struggle to get the minimum resources needed to do the job. As leaders we must ensure that team members have requisite tools to complete the job such as competent computers with systems that are efficient.  As leaders we should also ask our team members what they will need to get the job done. When our teams succeed, we succeed as a whole!

Managers can significantly influence engagement levels through their communication and their perspective. How they interact, the expectations they set, and how they support their team members’ work and development can change a bystander into a highly engaged employee.

What have you done to drive engagement this month?

Employee Engagement Tips

Tip #1 – Build Trust – Employees need to be able to trust their managers and company leadership. Clear communication is a key element of trust. To build trust, monitor how and what you communicate to people around you. Be clear and direct. Manage expectations. Be truthful and as transparent as possible to avoid guesses and assumptions and to prevent rumors and unfounded fears from spreading. In organizations under stress, sometimes it is difficult for leadership to be completely forthcoming. Few people expect everything to be perfect all the time, but uncertainty breeds discontent. Tell employees as much as possible as early as possible, even if it is bad news.

Tip #2 – Appreciate People – Recognition is an important part of motivation and engagement, and it can be as simple as genuine appreciation. Praise where warranted and give credit where credit is due. The best recognition is immediate, specific, and personal. Let the person know specifically what you appreciate about her or what she did, and do so in a way that the individual will appreciate – Public Praise.

Tip #3 – Support Growth – There is nothing more demotivating than feeling you’re in a dead-end job. Talk to employees about what direction they’d like to see their career path take, and help them identify opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them achieve those goals. Share with them ideas they can use for their own career management within the organization. Move past any fear you may have of your employees leaving – by caring about their growth and aspirations, you will probably get a more productive, loyal, and longer-term team member than if you don’t have these conversations.

Yanique W. A. Grant

Certified Customer Service Consultant

Professional Training and Occupational Services, Inc

International Channel Partner for Service Quality Institute (SQI)

Contact us:

http//www.customer-servicejamaica.com

Professional Training & Occupational Services Limited

22G Old Hope Road, Oxford Place Suite 10

Kingston 5

Jamaica (West Indies)

Tel. (876)-908-2310    Telefax: (876)-754-4474  Overseas: (312)-450-3424